Hello from Portland, OR! (With a question)

Hello Smoking Meat Forum community! I just got my first official smoker - the Smoke Hollow 30162E. Just a brief background, I grew up with my dad using a Little Chief to do smoked salmon. I've always had cooking as my favorite hobby and my good friend getting a Traeger a while back inspired me to start smoking. I looked around at a whole different kinds, but went with electric over pellet due to some concern about more moving parts with the Traeger. Smoke Hollow got good reviews, so I went with that.

So as a new member, I pose my first official question. I just attempted to season it, but to me it seemed weird. About 15-20 minutes after getting up to temp (300 degrees), I heard some cracking as if it were a camp fire. When I opened it up, I noticed that some of the wood chips (hickory) were turning orange as if it were in a fire pit. So is that normal? Should have I left it smoking?

Because I am new at this, I unplugged it and let everything cool. I don't really know what to look for with wood chips - when to know when it time to swap them out, any potential warning signs etc. I'm looking to do a pork butt and chicken on Sunday to prep for Labor Day, so the help would be greatly appreciated.

Glad you joined the group. The search bar at the top of any page is your best friend.
About anything you wanna know about smoking/grilling/curing/brining/cutting or slicing
and the list goes on has probably been posted. Remember to post a QVIEW of your smokes.
We are all smoke junkies here and we have to get our fix. If you have questions
Post it and you will probably get 10 replies with 11 different answers. That is
because their are so many different ways to make great Q...
Happy smoken.
David